BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. — A Florida judge has ruled that Broward County officials cannot exclude a church’s “Jesus is the reason for the season” display from a holiday lights event in a county park.
U.S. District Judge William J. Zloch of Miami said Nov. 19 that the county violated Calvary Chapel’s right to freedom of speech when it rejected its application to participate in the event, reported The Sun-Sentinel, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., newspaper.
Aware of church-state concerns, the judge ordered that the display by the Fort Lauderdale church be slightly modified to say “Calvary Chapel says Jesus is the reason for the season.”
In a suit filed Oct. 22, the nondenominational church said it paid $15,000 to participate in the two-mile “Holiday Fantasy of Lights” but an original approval was revoked by county officials.
John W. Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, which filed the suit on the church’s behalf, was pleased with the outcome. “This ruling clearly sends a message that the First Amendment protects religious speech just as it protects secular speech,” Whitehead said in a statement. “Government may not, in the name of political correctness, single out the views of religious persons for discriminatory treatment.”
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